Earlier this week, Salesforce.com announced that they are taking Chatter to the smart phone. While we've expected this for some time now - it is exciting news. Mobile devices are becoming the new enterprise desktop. IDC research is placing the number at more than 50 percent of the workforce.

"The combination of devices like the iPad or the new iPod touch with mobile apps like Chatter that push information to you in real-time are making the desktop obsolete."

- Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com.

What excites me about Chatter going mobile is the clear commitment by Salesforce.com to bringing business and social media together. Chatter was officially launched back in June. They are reporting that nearly 20,000 companies have deployed the platform. I've been in a number of user group meetings over the summer and the topic always comes up by someone in the group, "have you guys implemented Chatter for your users?" As the summer has progressed I've been hearing less and less people say, "not yet." What seems to be a clear indicator of a successful Chatter adoption by end users is they buy in from key executives. When this would be raised in the group, at least one admin would always chime in, "..but our CTO is so tied up in meetings and trips he doesn't have time." By rolling out Chatter Mobile, this is no longer a roadblock.

Chatter Mobile apps for iPhone, Blackberry and iPad will be in the market later in 2010. Support for Chatter Mobile on Andriod devices should be available next year.

Salesforce Chatter is available at no additional charge to app paying subscribers of Salesforce CRM and Force.com.